Africa-Press – Uganda. The ongoing ban on the recruitment of new staff countrywide, which was imposed by the Ministry of Finance in the 2023/24 financial year, has crippled service delivery, especially in the health sector, leaving Fort Portal City with the current staffing level at 25 percent.
This dire situation has left essential positions in health facilities vacant, putting the lives of patients at heightened risk as they encounter a shortage of adequate healthcare workers to attend to patients.
The Fort Portal City leaders were optimistic that the staffing levels would increase to more than 50 percent when it was elevated to city status, but three years later, the health sector has continued to grapple with understaffing.
The few health workers in facilities report being overworked and unmotivated, painting a concerning picture of the city’s facilities’ inability to deliver essential health services to its residents.
A health worker at Kagote Health Centre III, who preferred anonymity, said they have few staff and they are always overwhelmed by many patients, some of whom end up going back home unattended to.
“We are always short of staff on duty, especially on Monday. We always receive many patients and the line is always long. Those who get tired go back to their homes or refer themselves to Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital. Let the government resume recruitment of more staff to fill the gaps,” she said.
Ms Juliet Tushabomwe, a resident of Kagote, said accessing health services at the Kagote health facility is becoming a challenge because a patient has to spend more time in line.
“What hurts us is to wait in line for long and after reaching, the health worker tells you that they can’t work on you,” she said.
The Deputy Mayor of Fort Portal City, Ms Betty Mujungu, has raised an alarm over the city’s staffing crisis, particularly emphasising the adverse impact on women who make up the majority of individuals seeking medical services in local hospitals.
Ms Mujungu last week appealed to the central government to allocate funds for wages and lift the ban on new staff recruitment to address the shortage of health workers in facilities.
This, she added, would save people who have since resorted to seeking care in private facilities, where the costs are often prohibitively high.
She said under a recently-ended programme, Baylor, a non-governmental organisation, had hired some health workers in facilities in the city, but the project was not renewed, compounding the shortage of staff.
“As city leaders, our appeal to the central government is to allocate us adequate wages and remove the ban on the recruitment of new staff because we have a city service commission to be able to absorb qualified health personnel to avert the crisis in facilities,” Ms Mujungu said.
In a letter to the Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary, Dr Diana Atwiine, the city mayor, Mr Edson Asaba Ruyonga, requested more funds to enable urban authority to recruit more staff.
At the commencement of the 2023/24 financial year, the Ministry of Finance issued a circular stating that there would be no staff recruitment during this fiscal year. This decision was made to provide the government with the necessary time to complete a comprehensive audit of the public sector payroll, which aims to accurately determine the actual number of employees.
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